It's time to eat crow all you Wie naysayers. Slump? No way.

Everyone in the world of golf has to be happy Michelle Wie has her first LPGA win. Playing in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico, Wie, Creamer, Shin and Kerr created great theater right up to the final day, all good news for the game of golf and for the LPGA in particular. Did you see those crowds at Guadalajara Country Club?

With Annika gone from the pro scene, Lorena struggling a bit and the Koreans coming on strong, Hawaiian-born Wie comes into focus like a fresh breath of air to give renewed reason for everyone to watch the LPGA events.

All those naysayers who carped that Wie was burned out after failing to qualify as the first woman to play the men’s U.S. Open four years ago, who whined she was in a slump, when for heaven’s sake, she was only 16 at the time, can eat their words. How can you have a “slump” at that age? Get real.

These are the same dudes who said she was over hyped, over managed. Now at just 20, she is showing remarkable maturity and looking more relaxed than we’ve ever seen her.

Commenting on posting a solid 66 the second day, she said, “I was just having fun out there today. I liked my playing partners. And I’m much happier in general.”

Her cool on the run-up to the last nine holes showed she was more than a pretty face, more than a willowy 6 ft. tall beauty people love to look at. Sponsor heaven.

On the 18th, Wie’s sand iron out of the bunker sticking it less than a foot from the pin, was pure class while her arm pump after sinking the putt, pure joy. Dressed in red with a smile that lit up the world, did she remind you of anyone?

So why is it people think things have to be done according to their own time table. Give her a break. When she was just 16 playing in the Men’s Public Links, she astounded everyone by making it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated. Had she won that, she would have been on her way to the Masters.

Since then she’s turned professional, achieved 8 top 10 finishes, graduated from high school, entered Stanford University and drives an average distance of 301 yards.

Her solid performance on the Solheim Cup team winning all her matches obviously helped her find her momentum as did some plain old hard work with her coaches. On top of this, she was playing with a bum ankle.

I shudder to think what I had accomplished by the time I was stumbling into my 20th year.

What were you doing when you hit 20?

Were you earning $220,000 in one shot? Had you come close to socking away $1 million? Were you even thinking of balancing a career with history and math classes?

All this for a young women who, had she won in her home state of Hawaii, would have been too young to drink one of the victory beers Creamer and Pressel splashed all over her.

Watching the LPGA just got a lot more interesting. That can translate to bigger bucks. The “Big Wiesy” has star power.

20 comments

You're right on the "these are the same dudes" comment, emphasis on the dudes. You omitted the "bitter, burned-out, and insecure" adjectives.

It has been amazing to observe the scorn, to say nothing of the inability to see the obvious, of the Wie detractors. That Michelle Wie has rare--even transcendent--talent has been apparent since her prodigious childhood. But I'm not holding my breath for the admissions of "I was wrong about Wie" from such people. Someone once said that "success is the sweetest revenge." Michelle Wie has a sweet future.

Yes, Katie old girl, Bubbles won an invitational tournament in which thirty-four others finished all four rounds.
There was no cut for her to worry about, and eight of the thirty-six golfers invited, including Bubbles, had never won an LPGA tournament regardless of how long they had been trying.
At the upcoming event in Houston, 120 golfers are going to tee it up. Quite a few of those who were not at the tournament in Mexico have won on the tour in the past, including several majors. So Bubbles won't have the benefit of a sparse and therefore a weakened field.

You couldn't have put it any better! Really, what a remarkable achievement for a twenty year old gal...

I can't think of any other 'celebrity' who had generated more 'haters' than Wie. I suspect they are mostly men, who have psychological issues with women, in particular, those with talent and beauty. It is about time they get a life.

The top 31 players on the LPGA money list were all there last week along with 5 sponsor's exemptions. That sounds like a strong field. Players outside the top 31 don't add that much strength to a field.

Let's face it, Wie could win all four majors next year and the haters would still find ways to bad mouth her.

It was a fine victory over a strong field of a her peers. The US Masters is an invitational with a limited field of players (including a number of old duffers who get to play for life) and yet nobody dumps on the winner as being less worthy than those of the other majors.

In the end, assessing the career of a female golfer, the number of wins and the number of major wins are all that count. No one remembers where those wins came from or what type of field it was. Michelle Wie is off and running.

I think that her win was planned inside the LPGA. The girls knew if She won that they would make more money in the long run.
Wie did not play that well in her fourth round. She missed quite a few fairways and was lucky on the 18th hole. It's very well likely that when Wie was near the top of the leaderboard of a tournament all the other gals near the top would throw the match so that Wie would win so the LPGA would benefit. If you watched her play Sunday she really was not playing that well and her counterparts that usually play well down the stretch faltered. It really makes sense to me that this was planned by all the girls so they would get more exposure. The LPGA needed this outcome desperately.

So, she finally won a tournament. Creamer won 4 tournaments world wide her rookie year. We have no reason to "eat crow" yet. Once MW sets herself apart from the rest, then maybe. She didn't even win rookie of the year so don't get too excited. Even Birdie Kim won a tournament, a major at that and look what she has done since then. Oh, btw.. Katherine, are you the new Jennifer? Will you be writing a book also about MW?

Katharine...where do you get your stats... you wrote above, "..Since then she’s turned professional, achieved 8 top 10 finishes, graduated from high school, entered Stanford University and drives an average distance of 301 yards.." Well, according to the LPGA, she is currently ranked 5th in driving distance and an accuracy ranking of 142 ...

Nothing ever changes. "I've stepped in a few holes along the way"...huh, seriously, this is how you explain it. OR is that that she now fears ever losing again. She can now retire a champion hahahahaha...
People holding out that the LPGA's success lies with Michelle Wie are a joke.

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Katharine Dyson is a golf and travel writer for several national publications as well as guidebook author and radio commentator. Her journeys have taken her around the world playing courses and finding unique places to stay. She is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Metropolitan Golf Writers of America; Golf Travel Writers Organization and Society of American Travel Writers.

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